Subject: Re: Who wrote Catcher? [Was :Re: Basketball with the Big Boys [was RE: Words, words, words]
From: Tim O'Connor (oconnort@nyu.edu)
Date: Wed Jan 26 2000 - 14:37:58 EST
On Wed, Jan 26, 2000 at 10:14:52AM -0800, citycabn wrote:
> If in late January of 1955, one picked up a copy of The New Yorker and read
> _Franny_, I venture one might think Franny was some cousin of Teddy McArdle.
In the Time magazine article "Sonny: An Introduction," the journalist
says, "Since his marriage, [Salinger] has exhausted himself, and his
supply of sociability, in a protracted effort to give his [Glass
family] legend structure and direction, to deal with characters who
speak his own most shadowed thoughts, and to solve the snarls caused
by piecemeal publication. His face, after six years of struggle, shows
the pain of an artistic battle whose outcome still cannot be seen.
The battle almost certainly involves the matter of Seymour's sainthood
and suicide."
The author also posits that Salinger is writing an American REMEMBRANCE
OF THINGS PAST, and that there is a Glass Trilogy in the works. (This
was written shortly after F&Z was published in hardcover, but after
"Raise High..." and "Seymour: An Introduction" appeared in The New
Yorker.)
It's interesting that after all this time -- almost more than half of
Salinger's life! -- we still don't have answers to these questions,
though I agree with Cecilia about the wonderful Eberhard Alsen book
about the Glass stories acting as a composite novel. It's a lovely
piece of work.
Good, meaty post, Bruce!
--tim
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